Gulf States Newsroom
Too many local news outlets have disappeared in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The Gulf States Newsroom was created to ensure that stories related to health care, criminal justice, the economy and other important issues continue to be told. WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana, WBHM in Alabama, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, and NPR are working together as a regional newsroom to plan coverage, share resources and add reporting power in a story-rich region that has for too long gone under-covered.
The Gulf States Newsroom thanks those who make our work possible through their support, including: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, Moises Itzkowich Foundation, Theresa McDonald, the Trust for Civic Life, Advancing Democracy, Haberman Foundation, WWNO, WRKF, WBHM, MPB, and individual donors from our region and across the country. To learn more about the Gulf States Newsroom, or to support our work, email [email protected].
The Regional Team:
Ryan Vasquez, acting managing editor based at WWNO in New Orleans
Orlando Flores Jr., deputy managing editor based at WWNO in New Orleans
Kat Stromquist, senior reporter covering justice, incarceration and gun violence based at WWNO in New Orleans
Drew Hawkins, senior reporter covering public health based at WWNO in New Orleans
Nellie Beckett, community engagement producer based at WBHM in Birmingham
Joseph King, sports and culture reporter based at WBHM in Birmingham
Elise Catrion Gregg, community engagement reporter based at MPB in Jackson
Marci Schramm, development director based at WWNO in New Orleans
Andrea Miller, business manager based at WBHM in Birmingham
WBHM News Team | WWNO News Team | MPB News Team
Recent stories from the Gulf States Newsroom
- Gulf South food banks look back on a challenging year as another shutdown looms
- The Gulf South played a key role in high execution counts for 2025
- 20 years later, Waveland’s letters to Santa tell stories of recovery from Hurricane Katrina
- With federal relief on the horizon, Black farmers worry it won’t come soon enough
- Construction on Meta’s largest data center brings 600% crash spike, chaos to rural Louisiana
- Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
- Huntsville is growing fast. Here’s how it’s stayed affordable
- Hyundai still committing billions to Louisiana steel mill after ICE raid in Georgia
- Amid tariff costs, a ‘speed dating’ event helps connect Southern auto suppliers, makers
- Katrina changed how jails deal with natural disasters. 20 years later, challenges remain
- Alabama ranks near bottom in latest Medicare scorecard; here’s why
- New billboard draws attention to Anthony Boyd, Alabama’s next nitrogen gas execution
- Drug checking services save lives in the Netherlands. The Gulf South doesn’t have any
- Space Command is moving jobs to Huntsville. Will workers move with it?
- Gulf South pharmacies make their own rules amid confusing COVID guidance: ‘It’s clear as mud’
- Alabama executes Geoffrey Todd West for the murder of Margaret Parrish Berry
- NFL Legend Emmitt Smith, ‘The Bachelorette’s’ Zac Clark raise overdose awareness at LSU
- 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, East Biloxi’s casinos boom while Main Street dries up
- Bay St. Louis became the place to be after Hurricane Katrina — for those who can afford it
- Pascagoula still shows Hurricane Katrina’s heavy toll in Mississippi 20 years later
- New Orleans musicians found a home here after Katrina. Now, it’s raising the next generation
- ‘Down but not out’: The punk zine that helped keep New Orleans’ culture afloat after Katrina
- New Orleans musicians feel the heat of rising temperatures: ‘You can hear it in the music’
- Independent grocery stores have had a tough five years. SNAP cuts will make it harder
- Alabama officials worry about life-saving Narcan program’s future as CDC grants stall
- WATCH: SANEs and survivors in the South, a listening session with the Gulf States Newsroom
- In ‘The Jailhouse Lawyer,’ Calvin Duncan fights wrongful convictions behind the razor wire
- Q&A: How a conservative Mississippi mom became an advocate for legalizing drugs
- Netherlands police embrace a public health approach to drugs. Will it work in the South?
- Amtrak’s new Gulf Coast line will start service in August; see details
- ‘I literally grew up in prison’: Juvenile lifers share struggles, pleasures of coming home
- Trauma-informed nurses help sexual assault survivors. Most hospitals don’t have them.
- Mississippi’s tech scene is in a catch-22. How can it move forward?
- Alabama executes Gregory Hunt by nitrogen gas for 1988 murder of Karen Lane
- A New Orleans restaurant owner’s Facebook was hacked. It put her business in jeopardy
- Going Dutch: Harm reduction is embraced in the Netherlands but struggles in the US
- DOGE cuts, policy changes jeopardize care, housing for vulnerable HIV patients in Alabama
- Trump’s plan to bring shipbuilding back to the US? Port fees on Chinese vessels
- Q&A: How lethal injection ‘hides the violence’ of executions in the South and elsewhere
- Brutality and humanity at the Angola Prison Rodeo in Louisiana
- What’s the deal with torpedo bats? See how this Baton Rouge bat manufacturer makes them
- Lil Wayne’s New Orleans Jazz Fest headlining set is a big moment for hip-hop artists
- Birmingham ranked 4th worst in Southeast for ozone pollution, new ALA report says
- Trade wars grew America’s auto industry. Historians warn today’s tariffs won’t
- How neighborhoods in New Orleans are addressing urban flooding
- Trump’s tariffs have been a source of both hope and fear among Gulf South industries
- How HBCUs are helping grow the next generation of Gulf South environmental activists
- March Madness returns to Birmingham with women’s Sweet 16, Elite Eight games
- Data centers bring billions to Mississippi. Are the investments worth the risk?
- Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas in 1st use of death penalty in 15 years
- Attorneys, advocates make last-minute bid to stop Louisiana’s execution of Jessie Hoffman
- In the fight over Louisiana’s execution plans, religion plays a prominent role
- Under Trump, Huntsville might finally gain Space Command. It could also lose much more
- Q&A: What immigrants should know about their Constitutional rights during an ICE visit
- Inside a Mississippi man’s fight with health insurance and a hospital for life-saving surgery
- Glenn Foster Jr’s family uses Super Bowl to bring awareness to his death, demand justice
- Deep cuts to NIH funding would cause economic harm across Trump-friendly Alabama
- New Orleans has beefed up security for Mardi Gras. For smaller parading krewes, it’s costly
- Tourism in New Orleans remains strong despite terrorist attack. Will the trend last?
- U.S. veterans work to make sense of New Year’s Day incidents: It’s ‘doubly tragic’
- Amid sewage issues, a nonprofit is helping Alabama Black Belt residents find solutions
- Watch: ‘Voices of District 2’ highlights challenges, strengths of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District
- The Gulf South needs more sexual assault nurse examiners. Is teleSANE the answer?
- In New Orleans, focus shifts toward community recovery, healing after terror attack
- The 2024 moments that will stick with us: Reflections from the Gulf States Newsroom
- ‘Driven by something greater’: Meet Birmingham’s trainer to the stars of today and the future
- Q&A: The little-known history of how enslaved people were jailed in antebellum New Orleans
- Alabama leads US in ‘pregnancy criminalization’ cases following Dobbs decision: report
- One-day strikes are in: Why unions are keeping it short on the picket line
- Medicaid coverage is expanding into prisons in 2025, starting with children
- Alabama Black Belt’s sewer crisis a tougher fix for residents in manufactured homes
- In Birmingham, Black men’s groups work to save young men from the cycle of gun violence
- Here are 3 questions to ask before panic buying during a supply chain breakdown
- Challenges to forced prison labor gain steam, have resonance in the Gulf South
- ‘Where’s Jeff?’: Unhoused and struggling with opioid addiction in Birmingham
- Alabama’s 2nd nitrogen gas execution raises questions about method’s future use
- In coastal Louisiana, a sacred mound is returned to the Native American tribe who built it
- Efforts to restore voting rights for people with felony convictions lag in the Gulf South
- 1 reason people don’t evacuate for hurricanes? Rising costs, and they’re getting pricier
- Alabama voting FAQ: How to register, cast your ballot for Nov. 5 election
- ‘Mississippi Five’ parole issues highlight the toll of ‘graying’ in Gulf South prisons
- ‘A terrible experience’: LGBTQ+ students face challenges amid Alabama’s Title IX, sports ban debate
- Alabama, Mississippi receive millions to improve rural health care; here’s how they’ll spend it
- Q&A: Gulf States Newsroom reporters discuss covering Birmingham mass shooting
- Q&A: Is an innocent man on Alabama death row? Here’s the latest on Toforest Johnson’s case
- How Alabama food banks are keeping rural communities fed
- Bill Greason, the oldest-living Negro Leaguer, takes another trip around the bases at 100
- ‘A dream come true’: Alabama ‘grandfamilies’ are set to receive opioid settlement funds
- An art exhibit reckons with Alabama’s death penalty toll
- High school football is back. How are Gulf South schools keeping players safe from the heat?
- These 3 farms are an example of Mississippi’s growing network of sustainable agriculture
- A plan to fix Jackson’s water system could cost all of Mississippi its food stamps
- Q&A: A New Orleans Dollar General employee discusses $12M settlement, store closures, more
- Meet the people working to protect Southern protesters’ civil rights
- A new EPA grant is sending millions to the Alabama Black Belt to solve sanitation issues
- Nissan workers in Mississippi consider another union campaign: VW ‘proved it can be done’
- Need help with breastfeeding? Here are some local resources for Alabama parents
- Voting advocates in Alabama’s District 2 are training, gearing up for 2024 election
- Q&A: Baldwin & Co. bookstore owner on James Baldwin’s impact, carrying on his legacy
- In Louisiana, mutual aid networks help residents prepare for the peak of hurricane season
